The Music Man 12", #vinyl
Progressive trance and house

GIVING UP AIR OUT NOW
https://the-temper-trap.lnk.to/GivingUpAir

GIGS
https://The-Temper-Trap.lnk.to/Gigs

A  rt 
V  ariety 
 I  ntelligence 
A  ffair

ALEX M.O.R.P.H.: “Music is the Key. Melodies are the Path. 
Beats are Universal”.

Since the mid 90s Alex M.O.R.P.H has set out to shapeshift within the dance scene as per his alias, leaving no facet of trance unturned and showing the top of the tree is a position that he’s grown rather fond of. Even in a time where stats and streams, followers and figures are pushed to the front, the maths behind M.O.R.P.H’s staying power are frankly mind-boggling. ‘Not All Superheroes Wear Capes’ said the man on his 2016 album – but M.O.R.P.H. is deserving of honours fit for a king. “Passion, discipline, a lot of hard work, and most importantly the love for music”, ensure his crown never slips.

From collaborations with Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren (both of whom have always repped M.O.R.P.H. to the fullest), to remixes of Dash Berlin, Gareth Emery, Aly & Fila and Faithless, M.O.R.P.H. is the epitome of can’t stop-won’t stop, earning VIP entry to the globe’s most in-demand clubs and arenas as he continues with the energy and passion of his 1996 self when the Seelenlandschaften imprint came calling. It’s telling that M.O.R.P.H. being the first and only German DJ to play New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden, puts his touring and gig commitments in a different league considering his knocking-out-the-park performances at Cream Ibiza, Mayday, Ultra Music Festival and the ubiquitous A State of Trance spectaculars. Godskitchen, Ushuaia Ibiza, Space Miami, his own HeavensGate takeovers – all mega-scale spaces the German has commanded with ease and never taken for granted, delivering shows and sets living long in the memory while leaving you fiending for his next throb of beats. 

With M.O.R.P.H. still on a high-riding rollercoaster after all these years, cruising through ‘Sunset Boulevard’ while keeping the vibe at ‘Maximum Overdrive’, he has never lost sight of the true goal in life: “find your personal balance, keep things in line – and don’t risk your health!” A true exponent of knowing the scene never sits still, M.O.R.P.H.’s longevity and get-up-and-go overlaps into his handling of the Universal Nation label and podcast series: the man eats, sleeps and breathes music. Global lockdown may have forced a temporary timeout, but it only stirred creativity and tapped into other production processes, ready for when the world was good to go again.

Anyone with a keen ear for the High Contrast label over the last 18 months or so will have heard M.O.R.P.H. hiding in plain sight with a surefire supply of thrills and spills, adding to his reputation as a master of sounds under multiple names maintaining both melodic and attacking instincts. Again it’s all about balance and the right way of going about keeping things simple: “it’s just so important that all elements fit together well: that’s how you keep the atmosphere instead of just adding some big and loud synths in the break that rips the audience in two. It might work fine on the dancefloor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not how I do things”. Always an in-demand remixer, if you’re given the keys to take on hall-of-famers such as ‘Madagascar’ by Art of Trance and ‘Carte Blanche’ by Veracocha, you know you’ve been doing something right. “One thing has never changed – a heart beating for music”.
 
Back to those statistics. M.O.R.P.H. is an all-time trance bestseller on Beatport and has twice entered the fabled DJ Mag Top 100 list. With a calculator-smashing amount of productions, remixes, compilation mixes and single of the year awards, M.O.R.P.H. has proved time and again his music is for the masses, with streams for favourites such as ‘An Angel’s Love’ and ‘The Reason’ racing into the millions upon millions. On top of being A State of Trance go-to guy and a Vandit Records MVP, he has released on major movers such as Ministry of Sound and Armada. And M.O.R.P.H. isn’t done yet. “I want to get trance back there where it belongs - to the main stages, to more people, sharing with them how gorgeous our music is, and how essential it is to experience it together”. With two new singles reflecting his worldwide adventures - ‘Calling Berlin’ and ‘Calling San Francisco’ – and another album in the pipeline, you believe Alex M.O.R.P.H. is still the man to make all these things happen.

Formed in London 2012, Bear’s Den have amassed a dedicated and international fan base with their anthemic indie-folk-rock. With 3 studio albums under their belt, as well as recent collaborative project “Fragments"with composer Paul Frith, they have been a regular fixture in the charts of UK and Europe since their inception. Their Debut album “Islands” also garnered a nomination for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.  

Having toured around the world playing theatres, arenas and festivals (including Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury Festival, Pukkelpop, Lowlands and Bonnaroo), in 2019, following the release of their third album “So That You Might Hear Me" they returned to their origins for a tour of tiny "Highlands and Islands" venues across Scotland and a supporting documentary.  No stranger to music documentary making, the band also featured heavily in the award winning documentary Austin To Boston alongside Ben Howard, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Staves. 

The band’s most recent release, 2020’s “Fragments” is a collaborative work with acclaimed composer/arranger Paul Frith (Bear’s Den, The xx, Radiohead), taking highlights of the band’s back catalogue and rebuilding them from the ground up, alongside an orchestral ensemble, creating a completely new body of work from pieces of the originals.

Official SoundCloud Channel of Jon Bellion.

Abdi Muuse is following